She's Done

Here's CJ posing in front of the tree she decorated. She woke up this morning and ran out there to put an ornament on before she even got dressed!

Here's the end result:

It looks good. She even spread the red ornaments out this year, unlike in the past.

Mama's wondering if we need a new farm as it seems like each year the trees get a little less perfect. Check out last year and the year before.

Annie

Today was "dress-up" day at school as they were attending Annie at a local children' theatre. Mommy was able to join the group and it was a great show. 1-1/2 hours with no intermission, but all the students did very well. Mommy's favorite part was Sandy, Annie's dog, who was played by a beautiful and well-behaved labradoodle.

Let There Be Lights

Daddy finished putting up the lights:

And CJ was able to put up a few ornaments before bed:

Jingle, Jingle, Jingle

This was CJ's 2nd year doing the Jingle Bell Run. Our plans had us leaving the house a little earlier, but we made it with about 45 seconds to spare before the kids run took off. Daddy ran with her and Mama ran alongside and took pictures (which were mostly blurry). She had fun and we ended up with more jingle bells, new reindeer antlers and a few coupons for smoothies as well as her prize bag with a pencil, notepad and eraser. How perfect for her. We celebrated with a blueberry muffin at the bakery and a quick park visit before we braved a crazy sale to get her a new pair of running shoes so we can keep this tradition going.

Tree Shopping

Tree shopping was tough this year. It was dry and there was no snow, but it was cold. The place we've gone for the last few years is great as it isn't crowded and there are usually tons of beautiful nobles to pick from. But for some reason this year was harder for us and when Mama joked about going to another farm, Daddy didn't immediately answer with "are you kidding me?"

We decided to stay and were finding a few trees we liked when another family started to follow us in our tracks. That gave us the motivation to throw in the towel and cut one down. Note to self - mushrooms under trees are slippery.

Zoolights 2010

It was sunny and warm when Mama drove to pick CJ up from school (and got stuck in stopped traffic on a bridge for almost half an hour, but that's another story) so Mama got the idea of going to ZooLights. Four or five hours later it was still dry, but a bit colder (36 degrees) when we got off the Max train at the zoo.

CJ got a pair of 3D heart glasses to enhance the experience:

For the first time, CJ asked to ride the train during zoolights. We agreed, but it meant a 40-minute wait for the 10-minute ride. We did luck out and got in line in front of Santa:
CJ was excited we got the steam train:
We stayed late and saw a few of the other lights, but really need a trip back as we didn't make it to the farm area to get our annual family picture with one of the goats:

Hall Musician

It seems a bit obvious that CJ's school is in an urban area when she comes home and sets up a music show in a street musician fashion. She even has an open box for her guests to throw a coin in so she can count how many people stopped by.